Sustainable Protected Area Management: The Case of Llancahue, a Highly Valued Periurban Forest in Chile

Abstract

The Llancahue watershed is a 1,300-ha state-owned, protected forest threatened by illegal logging. To improve conservation practices, we provide a prescription for protecting the 400 ha of old-growth stands and to promote old-growth attributes through responsible management of the secondary forests. The plan involves the local community in efforts to reduce illegal logging and generates annual net revenues of 20,000–US$30,000 which will be used to conserve the forest and employ the local community by thinning 10–15 ha yr⁻¹. We present the Llancahue watershed as a case study for implementing sustainable forest management with local communities as a means of conserving forestland.

Keywords:

• natural resource management
• old-growth forest
• sustainability
• sustainable forest management
• Valdivian Ecoregion

Acknowledgments

The authors thank their funders—including North Carolina State University Hofmann fellowships, the USDA International Science and Education Grant Program, and a North Carolina State University Zobel Grant. P. J. Donoso thanks FONDECYT Grant N° 1110744 from the National Commission of Science and Technology (CONICYT). The authors also acknowledge the support of the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Natural Resources at the UACh, the Lomas del Sol community for their participation in the study, and the technicians— Paul Szejner, Javier Millar, William Alarcon, and Kenneth Alvarado—who were indispensable to the completion of the field research. Thanks are also due to Daisy Nunez, Dr. George Hess, Dr. Robert Kellison, and Dr. Graeme Berlyn for valuable feedback provided on an earlier versions of this article.